I just noticed TipWeight's post on the first page of this thread, regarding an instructor getting blinded by a green laser near ABZ and the student having to take control.
Absolutely true. I was the student during my CPL course. The green light seemed to pervade all of the scratches in the canopy and cause lots of beams to bounce around inside. Double whammy - neither eyes nor canopy are on your side when this happens.
I was fortunate to be able to look away and take over (entirely on instruments) immediately. Believe me, I have lots of weaknesses as a pilot, but luckily my instructor had recently told me I was one of the best students he'd come across when it came to flying on instruments and limited panel.
Unbelievably, on that same flight, whilst flying our way back to Peterculter, some idiot with a Landrover shone a very powerful spotlight at us. I believe he was taking part in a hobby known as "Lamping". We really felt like landing to show him an alternate use of the word. Good luck to him getting his Defender serviced if LR go under! ;-)
Last year I was at an astronomy evening and had the opportunity to let the green laser users that the hazard to pilots (which they were sceptical about) was real - from the horse's mouth as it were.
Then just two nights ago I was out for a drink in the local pub when the son of some people we were with started shining a green laser around. I had a serious chat with his mother (I was keen to know why the hell he had the thing at all) with the result that it has been confiscated. She was oblivious to the danger to pilots, and that some folks have been jailed.